Poor Mans Beamspring?

[Zefix]

Alright internet.
I'm looking to get my hands on a vintage beamspring-esque keyboard for let's say less than $300.

Don't crucify me for saying this but when I say beamspring I am referring to the vibes not necessarily the switches. So the space cadet keyboard is another great example of the vibe I'm looking for.

Here's some inspiration so we're on the same page.











A keyboard with a robust converter (soarers) would be optimal!

[Maledicted]

What do you mean by vibe? Just the aesthetic of spherical keycaps? You can get spherical caps for any random switches with MX stems. The most important thing about beamsprings is the mechanism, which is currently being resurrected.

There is the silo beam switch as well, but it sounds like they're still in the development phase on that.

When you go back far enough into keyboard history to see a lot of spherical caps, you're dealing mostly with weird proprietary protocols, layouts and switches.

[Zefix]

Yeah I'm definitely not looking for an ordinary mx keyboard with those vintage caps thrown ontop. That's just blasphemous... 

But yes you know of any specific weird spherical cap vintage keyboard lines that are reasonably accessible and can use soarer's or other converters? I'm looking for late 70s early 80s keyboards. Gotta add to my collection!

Also thats awesome to see the model f keyboard people resurrecting the beam springs! I may end up getting one I can scrounge up $500!

[Maledicted]

Anything that old is usually handwired because it uses some forgotten old protocol that never saw the jump to personal computers.

I think that the IBM Pingmaster works with Soarer's converter. That has spherical caps.



Hasu apparently has a converter for the PC-9800 series keyboards.



Neither are probably exactly what you're looking for, but the Pingmaster has Alps SKCC Green switches.

[Zefix]

hmmm you know the pingmaster may work actually. It would look really nice with the keycaps swapped with dark gray and black ones...if that exists for the green alps!

Thanks!

[Maledicted]

hmmm you know the pingmaster may work actually. It would look really nice with the keycaps swapped with dark gray and black ones...if that exists for the green alps!

Thanks!

Alps SKCC was a pretty prolific switch in its day, so you might be able to swap at least some of the caps from other ancient boards.

I have one of these, and know where there might still be more.



Totally different layout though, and still not exactly the colors you want. The biggest problem is going to be that keyboards were the wild west then. You would basically need to find a keyboard made for a specific platform to even find caps that would fit the same layout exactly. Some lunatic on Deskthority apparently modified an SKCC switch to fit MX caps though.

[Chalkboard]

What about those kaypro boards with KeyTronic foam and foil switches? They look pretty cool, but I couldn’t keep one on my shelf knowing what lurks behind those beautiful keycaps

[Zefix]

What about those kaypro boards with KeyTronic foam and foil switches? They look pretty cool, but I couldn’t keep one on my shelf knowing what lurks behind those beautiful keycaps

Hey yeah those keyboards are cool! The Kaypro II and IV look so menacing haha!
The keyboards are pretty ridiculous but honestly it'd be pretty badass to take the unit out of the monstrous case and type with it bare on the desk.

-

So I did some digging and it seems that there's talk of a xwhatsit converter for the low-resistance telephone line that it uses. I also saw some replacement low-resistance cables for this keyboard on eBay. Seems pretty legit. I donno. I'm fairly ignorant of the realm outside vintage IBM But I'm learning! That's part of the fun right?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/One-1-CP-M-Kaypro-2-II-4-2X-10-Keyboard-cable-wire-replacement-Low-Cost-/202593787794?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l6249&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0

https://deskthority.net/viewtopic.php?t=23816

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KJYSprp5-BQ

[Zefix]

Another idea, commodore 64..?




I'm too tired tonight to think up about this one, but aesthetically this is the most similar to a classic beamspring ive seen so far.
This keyboard seems to have lots of ports on the back which could be promising to get it to work on my computer!
And most importantly its reasonably priced on ebay!

[Maledicted]

I think Chyros has at least one video on a Kaypro board. I don't recall whether or not it had been converted to work with a modern computer.

That second C64 picture confused the heck out of me. In a few quick searches it appears that that's just a 3D render. The C64 is a home computer, not just a keyboard, and the layout is far from modern. The same reddit post I looked at about the render mentioned an adapter for the OG C64 to convert it into no more than a keyboard, called the Keyrah.. I wonder if something such as that exists for the Atari 800. My coworker has one and I found the Hi-Tek high profile linear switches in it quite nice.